Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Opening of the American Children's Corner
Sofia City Library
Sofia, Bulgaria

9:16 A.M. (Local)

MRS. BUSH: Thank you all very much, and thank you so much, Mrs.
Parvanova, appreciate it very much for your warm welcome to your
beautiful country and to the historic city of Sofia.

We actually met first at a book festival in Russia, so she's right
that our friendship started over books. And that was the first time we
met, and then when she visited the United States, we went to the United
States Library of Congress, our big Library of Congress together, where
the Librarian of Congress showed her some very old Bulgarian books that
happen to also belong to the Library of Congress.

Mr. Belchev, thank you so much for letting us join you today. I
want to recognize Jocelyn Greene, our ambassador's wife, the wife of the
United States ambassador to Bulgaria. Mrs. Mihaylova is here. Where is
she? Right there. Thank you very much. She's the Deputy Minister,
Regional Development and Public Works, and former director, project
director of the America-Bulgarian Library Exchange.

Mr. Igor Chipev, head of the Department of Books and Libraries,
Ministry of Culture, thank you for joining us, as well. Mrs. Grashkina,
the President of the Bulgarian Library Association. And I hope you have
a chance to also meet with people in the American Library Association,
which is a very active association, as you know.

Members of the Bulgarian Library Association and members of the
American-Bulgarian Library Exchange, thank you all very much for joining
us today as we inaugurate the American Children's Corner here at the
Sofia City Library.

This project began a couple of years ago when Mrs. Parvanova asked
me to bring the cultural resources available in other American Corners
in Bulgaria to the library here in Sofia. Now, in partnership with the
United States embassy, the Sofia City Library will serve as a source of
information about the United States of America.

The books in this American Corner tell the story of the United
States, describing my country's history, culture and diverse society.
In these books, children in Sofia can discover literature that children
in the United States enjoy.

The Corner will also feature six computers, which patrons can use
to learn about American sports and music and other activities. In fact,
many of the books that are in the library are our family favorites that
President Bush and I read to our children when they were babies, or that
our mothers read to us when we were young, classics of American
children's literature.

The American Corner will also house one of the three-book reference
sets the embassy is donating to 100 public libraries throughout
Bulgaria. These are National Geographic sets; they're guides to the
American states, Presidents and history. They're easy to read and they
contain lots of maps and photographs and illustrations, and I think
they'll be a great asset for Bulgarian children and adults looking to
increase their knowledge about the United States.

The American Corner is a part of an exchange between our countries
through the American-Bulgarian Library Exchange program, as American
libraries in Colorado, Maryland and Iowa now have collections of books
about Bulgarian culture, history and cuisine. These libraries organize
"Bulgaria Days" and other events to teach Americans about what life is
like here in Bulgaria.

Library visits and reading are great ways for young people to
develop new interests, to perform better in school, and to have fun.
But the benefits of reading extend far beyond the library. As the
people of Sofia know very well, reading and being able to learn and
discuss ideas freely is a basic requirement for healthy, democratic
societies.

The United States and Bulgaria are allies and friends because our
countries both treasure this freedom, and we share a deep love of
learning. Around the world, though, more than 800 million people cannot
read. Almost 100 million of them are children, and almost two-thirds of
them are women.

Developed countries with high literacy rates, like Bulgaria and the
United States, share a responsibility to increase literacy in the
world's developing countries. To help governments ensure that children
and adults in their countries know how to read, a White House Conference
on Global Literacy was held last September in New York at the time of
the U.N. General Assembly. The conference was held in partnership with
several government agencies and UNESCO. UNESCO is now building on this
event with a series of regional literacy conferences around the world.
The first conference took place in Qatar this past March, and was a
great success. Over the next two years, UNESCO will host follow-up
literacy conferences in China, Mali, India and Costa Rica, with an
effort to reach people and governments all over the world to make sure
people are educated all over the world.

The White House Conference and all of the regional conferences
provide a forum for U.N. members to examine literacy programs that work
and to learn how to implement them in their countries. I'd like to
thank Mrs. Parvanova for participating in the White House Conference on
Global Literacy, and I'd like to thank the people of Bulgaria for your
country's contributions to this international effort.

Thanks to each of you for welcoming me to Sofia. I look forward to
the new ties of friendship that will form between Bulgaria and the
United States as a result of this American Corner. I hope you'll enjoy
learning more about the United States through this addition to the Sofia
Library.